The increasing emphasis on obtaining high octane non-aromatic fuel molecules has increased the search for environmentally compatible solid acid catalysts, primarily oxides, for use in such processes as paraffin isomerization and alkylation. In the area of paraffin isomerization, the solid acid catalyst should provide good activity at low temperature since thermodynamic equilibrium generally favors multibranched isomers, with high octane value, at lower temperature. In addition to maximizing product branching it is important to limit the amount of competing reactions, predominantly cracking, during isomerization. These cracking reactions are particularly problematic for acyclic paraffin feed molecules C.sub.7 + or larger.
The most commonly used catalysts in n-paraffin (C.sub.5 and C.sub.6) isomerization include Pt supported on zeolites such as mordenite, or on highly chlorided aluminas which in the presence of continuous chlorine addition to the feed exist as aluminum trichloride supported on alumina. What is needed in the art is an oxide based catalyst that can isomerize n-paraffins at low temperatures and in particular form very little cracked products with C.sub.7 + feeds. Furthermore, such catalysts would alleviate the environmental concerns associated with the inconvenient, environmentally detrimental chlorine addition required during operating aluminum chloride based isomerization catalysts.